The Mid-Summer Classic!?!?

We have reached yet another midpoint of a major league baseball season. Tonight, is Major League Baseball's Allstar Game. I can remember growing up and really looking forward to watch all of my favorite players competing against each other in one BIG game. However, it is not nearly important to me as it used to be. That has got me wondering why I feel this way??? I still love baseball and I devote a certain amount of my life to it every year... Yet, somehow I just don't get the spark that I used to. Well, ok, maybe the actual Allstar Game itself, I might be a little hopped up for... The other festivities have lost their appeal. As a life-long Cubs fan, I was trying to make myself feel better last night while watching the Home-Run Derby by thinking that the reason I wasn't enjoying it was due to the fact that is was being held in St. Louis. However, that is sadly not true. The Home-Run Derby just simply lack its flare... I was bored!!! Baseball and boring is never supposed to find themselves in the same sentence as it pertains to me. I do not believe that I am the only one who feels this way.

Baseball and Bud Selig needs to do something to liven up the whole proceedings. The players involved in the HR Derby were just not appealing, great ball-players, but boring. Last year, all the hoopla over Josh Hamilton and his return to baseball after battling a drug addiction raised the appeal of the Derby for me. The key thing about last years Derby is that Hamilton delivered! The show he put on in Yankee Stadium was amazing and fitting since that was the last year it was open. I was praying when they interviewed him last night about how he felt watching it from the "sidelines" that he might bounce up and grab a bat and take some hacks. He mentioned that it was tough for him to sit there and watch it. As soon as Selig heard this, he should've ushered Hamilton up to the dish with a bat in his hand. That would have made for great tv and truth be told he probably would have won. Sadly, we were left to watch Brandon Inge not get anywhere near the fence, Albert Pujols(hometown favorite) not sniff the finals in St Louis, Adrian Gonzalez hit a couple out, and so forth and so on.... Nelson Cruz vs Prince Fielder in the finals??? I think both are great in their own right, but not a lot of tv value there... Neither are what I would call "blessed with great personalities." I was truly so bored that I didn't actually watch the whole Derby. Its sad that I was mildly more entertained by the Legends/Celebrities Softball game. Although, the Mike and Mike angle is getting a little tired. Nice to see Bobby Knight last night in the game.

So, let me offer some solutions instead of continuously complaining.

1. Force guys who "decide they don't wanna mess up their swing" actually take part in the Derby. I get so tired of hearing that every year... Its the same in comparison to why Lebron James doesn't play in the Slam Dunk Contest... Get over yourself and take part in it. It takes place once a season and fans want to see it. If you have a swing that has carried you to the majors, you won't "forget" how to do it.

2. Get a couple of pitchers involved. Yeah, thats right!!! Ask a Carlos Zambrano or a Micah Owings to get in on the action. How much smack talk could be had if one of those guys actually made it to the final, yet possibly win it.

3. Ok, if the pitcher angle doesn't suit you... Ask a couple of guys who have recently hung it up to dust off the bat and swing for the fences. I know its sensitive right now with the most two intriguing guys being suspected steriod users... However, ask Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa to see how they do off of the PEDs. Of course, thats assuming that they have stopped taking them.

4. This idea is a little more far-fetched... Ask a couple of guys from another sport to try to smack a couple of bombs. Maybe, a couple fo guys who have some baseball backgrounds. I'm sure somewhere there is an NFL player that think, "eh, I could hit more homeruns than those guys." Well, put up or shut up.

Ok, now aside from my suggestions on how to improve the Derby... I think they need to re-do this whole, "this game counts nonsense," it shouldn't. The NL has sucked so bad for the last few years in this game that its almost an automatic homefield advantage for whatever AL team makes the World Series. I know they are looking to get the players to take it more seriously, but c'mon this should have nothing to do with homefield advantage. If players continuously turn down the honor after the fans have voted them in, then maybe the fans will eventually stop voting for them. Or take fan voting away in general and have the players/coaches select who should be allstars.

Anywho, I will tune in tonight for the showdown. I feel like the NL has their best shot at winning in quite sometime. Great young pitching that should be enough to snap this losing streak. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but rest assured for me... I can't wait til Thursday when the games that really count, start back up.

PS: This is a first entry. I hope I will stick with this, if for nothing else than to hear myself talk, er.. watch myself type, I dunno. I doubt I will do it daily, but for the most part it will be sports related and I will be pissed off about something. Maybe you, yeah thats right you, will learn something or enjoy the read. I'm not going to proofread these things too much, so try to see beyond my grammar mistakes and sentence structure errors. If there is a problem big enough to email me about, then please feel free. Otherwise, don't be a douchebag and start something. You won't win, I assure you that... ;)

Good day.